Octorox said:
I think you raise some very good points here. However, If I add this scene back, I will likely remove the scene where Anakin goes to say goodbye to Padme, since I think Portman’s performance is particularly weak in that scene. Thoughts?

Well, the goodbye scene adds a little extra to the “decoy” subplot, and if you skip it you lose too much interaction between the protogonists, as well as the “miror construction” which is a signature of Lucas style in the Prelogy (Padmé goes to Anakin on the spaceship; Anakin goes to Padmé in Coruscant). Hal’s version of this scene is the best compromise. The same with “missa going home” : after the long part in Coruscant (which is not really the funniest part of the movie, though the most interesting for the main plot), which is very cold and talkative, you need to have an explosion of joy from a character, in this case Jar Jar. Besides the music montage is powerful.

I’m quite interested in your montage of the celebration scene. As soon as the file is available I’ll try to check your original contributions.